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Wednesday, May 13, 2009

051309 storms

Watched the cold front pass over Wichita on Radar right before I headed home from work. Thought I might get a little chase in.

Storms started to initiate in Emporia and I thought they might slide on down the front to east of Wichita. Took care of a couple of things, looked out to the East and figured, I better get out there.

Clouds were looking promising. NOAA (National Weather Service) said that if the storms could break the strong cap (Cap or Capping Inversion) - A layer of relatively warm air aloft (usually several thousand feet above the ground) which suppresses or delays the development of thunderstorms. Air parcels rising into this layer become cooler than the surrounding air, which inhibits their ability to rise further. As such, the cap often prevents or delays thunderstorm development even in the presence of extreme instability. However if the cap is removed or weakened, then explosive thunderstorm development can occur.) that we would have some explosive results.

Take a look at the middle column. Notice how everything looks like it's topped out, but yet you have a powder puff pushing through?

This is what happened:

I guess it couldn't break through. It tried, but then the entire band collapsed.

I gave up on the storm and went home. Only to find out later further down south that the storm produced tornadoes in Cowley County.

2 comments:

I've followed your blog forever. I just now signed up for google so I could leave comments. We live north of Halstead a ways and are big storm chasers--just for fun and because I love taking pictures. Anyway, just thought I'd let you know that I'm a long time reader!